HT Survey: Why celebrities fight!

By Hindustan Times

Celebrity wars have become an everyday affair in Bollywood. The enmity between friends-turned-foes Salman and SRK is going on for years. Recently, Salman Khan took potshots at SRK at Ambani's bash in Sachin Tendulkar's honour. It's not just war of words in Bollywood. SRK reportedly punched Shirish Kunder, while Saif allegedly assaulted NRI businessman Iqbal Meer Sharma's family. Two latest additions to the list are Karan Johar and Priyanka Chopra. The filmmaker indirectly called the actor 'lame and spineless' on a public platform like Twitter.

Do money, power and fame overtake personal relationships in Bollywood or are these brawls concocted just to catch everyone's attention? Is the media reponsible for blowing the wars out of proportion? Are the readers game for such stories? We took a poll to find out. Here's the result:

Question 1: Why do celebs wash their dirty laundry in public?
While 40% of the respondents feel that celebs get into brawls just to promote themselves or their films, 28% feel the wars are genuine and reflect personal enmity. 32% feel that celebs don't know better.

Question 2: Does the media blow celeb wars out of proportion?
More than half (56%) of the participants feel the fourth pillar of democracy misuses its rights and sensationalises the issue. While 12% differ with it, 32% have no opinion.

Question 3: What would you do when you stumble upon a story about celebs at loggerheads?
No matter how much the readers criticise celebs for fighting or media for reporting, 40% of them do read and share. A few (24%) vent out their anger through comments on stories. It came as a surprise that a good 36% of the respondents chose to ignore such news.

Recent celebs brawls:

Karan Johar vs Priyanka Chopra
Karan Johar's followers on Twitter were in for a surprise on Tuesday morning. The filmmaker indirectly called Priyanka Chopra 'lame and spineless.' The so-called spat started after a tabloid quoted PC's unnamed friends defending her on link-up with Shah Rukh Khan and hinting that Johar had been bitching about her.

Johar's tweet read: "Using their hired PR machinery and hiding behind so called "friends" to get news into tabloids is nothing but spineless and lame!!" He added: "Some people need to wake up and smell the KOFFEE!!! Get a reality check before it’s too late!!! Grow up!!! and don’t mess with goodness."

King Khan reacted saying: "I get numb by the kind of stories I keep hearing about myself. I try not to take them seriously or comment about them."

Salman Khan vs Amitabh Bachchan
Things have not been going well between the two superstars since the time Salman criticised Big B's decision of stepping down as the brand ambassador of IIFA. Recently, Salman Khan ignored Bachchan at IPL rehearsals by preferring to wait in his vanity van till Big B finished his rehearsals. Even at the IPL opening ceremony, Salman Khan avoided coming face-to-face with Amitabh Bachchan.

Salman Khan also kept his distance from Abhishek Bachchan (who is married to his ex-flame Aishwarya Rai) at Mona Kapoor's funeral.

Shah Rukh Khan vs Abhijeet Bhattacharya
Another addition to SRK's enemy list is Abhijeet Bhattacharya. The singer recently blasted SRK in an interview saying the actor should apologise to him for not giving him due credit in Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om.

When asked by a tabloid to comment on what Abhijeet said, SRK quipped: "Isn’t it a coincidence that whoever doesn’t want to work with me becomes famous?"

Saif Ali Khan vs Iqbal Meer Sharma
Actor Saif Ali Khan was booked by the Mumbai Police under Section 325 of the Indian Penal Code for causing grievous injury. The brawl happened at the Japanese restaurant Wasabi at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba. The fight was related to NRI businessman Sharma objecting to noise coming from Saif Ali Khan's table and asked them to speak softly so that others are not disturbed. Apparently at this, Khan told him that 'if he is looking for silence, he should go to a library instead of a restaurant.'

Things got ugly after loud arguments between the two followed and Khan allegedly punched Sharma on the face. Sharma then went to the nearby Colaba Police Station and lodged an FIR against the actor.

Shah Rukh Khan vs Shirish Kunder
Shah Rukh Khan allegedly assaulted Farah Khan's husband and filmmaker Shirish Kunder at Sanjay Dutt's Agneepath bash. Farah Khan also SMSed reporters saying: "Shahrukh has always told me that physical abuse is the worst way 2 sort out a problem, n that its means the person who's hitting has either a personal or professional crisis going on, n it saddens me 2 see him doing the same (sic)."

However, the truce happened after Shirish and Farah, along with latter's brother Sajid Khan and their common friend Sajid Nadiadwala, went to SRK's home, Mannat.